The leader of Formula One, Oscar Piastri, won the Spanish Pole position Grand Prix in an McLaren One-Two with Lando Norris on Sunday, while Max Verstappen was degraded from fifth to tenth for a late collision with Mercedes by George Russell.
Piastri beat his teammate and rival of the Norris title for 2,471 seconds for his fifth victory in nine races this season, and the seventh of McLaren, to stretch his status as a 10 -point championship. Charles Leclerc de Ferrari completed the podium after passing the Red Bull of Verstappen six laps from the end of a race that saved the drama to the end.
“It is a good way to recover from Monaco. An excellent weekend,” said Piastri, who ended third last weekend in a race won by Pole by Norris.
Verstappen, who made four stops in total and ended up fighting in the slower hard tires against the rivals with SOFTS, crashed with Leclerc and then twice with Russell after a security car was restarted with six laps for the end.
“I have seen that type of maneuvers before at the simulator games and go-karting, but never in the F1,” said Russell, who has had confrontations before with four times the Verstappen world champion.
“I really don’t know what was going through his mind.”
Penalty points
Nico Rosberg, world champion of Mercedes 2016 and now an expert for Sky Sports Television, said that Verstappen should have been Black-Flagged for what seemed to him as intentional retaliation due to the previous contact.
The penalty of 10 seconds was added to the time of Verstappen after the race, and the driver also gave three penalty points to take his total account to 11 for the 12 -month period, a step from a prohibition of a race.
Verstappen and Leclerc also faced an investigation after the race for their shock. “I tried to push it to the left, there was a little contact, but fortunately there are no consequences,” Leclerc said.
Verstappen said the Monegásque had gotten into it and should have returned the place.
Russell finished fourth after they finally let him pass by Verstappen, who indicated to be told to do so, but reluctantly obeyed.
Nico Hulkenberg de Sauber finished a surprising fifth and that increased morality for the future Audi team after moving on to the Ferrari World Champion, Lewis Hamilton, on the penultimate return.
Hamilton was a sixth disappointing, Isack Hadjar seventh by Racing Bulls and Pierre Gasly eighth by Alpine, owned by Renault.
Ferrari went up to the second from the room in the classification of the builders, now 197 points behind McLaren.
Verstappen remained third in the pilot championship, but now 49 points behind Piastri in what is becoming a battle of McLaren.
First points
The domestic hero Fernando Alonso scored his first points of the season with Aston Martin, who only had a car on the network due to the withdrawal of Lance Stroll through an injury after the Saturday classification.
Piastri went to the beginning with Verstappen taking the second place of Norris, while Hamilton and Leclerc moved to the fourth and fifth when Russell lost.
Hamilton let Leclerc on Tour 10 of 66 after the two Ferraris had their nose to the tail. Norris withdrew the second place of Verstappen in Tour 13, the Dutch driver did not make any attempt to defend against the McLaren faster and faces in the next lap for fresh tires.
Verstappen took the lead again on Tour 23 after Piastri faced, with Norris making his first stop at Vuelta 21 and leaving behind Red Bull, but that lasted only until Verstappen faced himself for the second time on Tour 30.
He reached a third stop at Vuelta 47, but Norris faced the return later to defend the second place.
A deployment of security cars in Tour 55, after the Italian rookie Kimi Antonelli accelerated his Mercedes in the gravel, grouped the field and caused an eruption of stops.
The McLarens joined for fresh tires, double stacking, and resumed ahead of Verstappen, who questioned the change to a set of hard, but told him that this was the only option available.
“That security car came at the wrong time,” he said. “On the line, they already took me back one too. Then they told me to return the position.”
